Exploring Bolivia: Ghost Recon-Esque Adventure

In Ubisoft's Ghost Recon Wildlands, players find themselves in Bolivia, a landlocked country in South America. The game is set in July 2019, when the country has become unstable due to the growing influence of the Mexican drug cartel, Santa Blanca. Bolivia's diverse landscapes and rich culture inspired Ubisoft to choose it as the setting for the game. To create an authentic experience, Ubisoft sent four teams to different parts of the country to capture reference material. While the game's Bolivia is fictional, it captures the essence of the country's rural areas, including coca leaf-growing regions, salt flats, and the Andean mountains. The game's narrative, which involves a drug cartel gaining control of the government, led to a formal complaint from the Bolivian government, who threatened legal action. Despite this, the game received mostly positive reviews and sold over 10 million units by March 2020.

The landscapes of Bolivia inspired Ubisoft's largest open-world game

Ubisoft's largest open-world game, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands, is set in Bolivia, a landlocked country in South America. The game's development team, led by Benoit Martinez, travelled to Bolivia to capture reference material and gain an intimate understanding of the country's landscapes and culture.

Bolivia is known for its rugged landscapes and breathtaking ecological diversity, with 11 different ecosystems, including the Andes Mountains, vast provinces, burnt forests, swamplands, and snow-capped mountains. The Ubisoft team travelled thousands of miles across the country, capturing thousands of photos and hours of video footage to recreate the diverse environments in the game.

One unique feature of Bolivia is the diversity of its regions, with 11 different ecosystems, some of which are unique to the Andes Mountains. The Ubisoft team had to carefully craft the terrain, adding mountains and fields to create a fictional amalgamation of Bolivia that felt authentic. They paid close attention to the details, including the soil type, altitude, and proximity to water, to influence the placement of vegetation and create a realistic and immersive experience for players.

The game features iconic landmarks and locations in Bolivia, such as the Laguna Colorada, or the Red Lagoon, a shallow salt lake in the southwestern altiplano region. The team also recreated the North Yungas Road, known as the "Road of Death," a dangerous and deadly road carved into the side of a cliff, connecting the cities of La Paz and Coroico. Another notable location in the game is the train cemetery outside the city of Uyuni, where rusted 19th-century steam locomotives sit abandoned.

The landscapes of Bolivia, with their diverse ecosystems and cultural significance, served as a rich source of inspiration for Ubisoft's largest open-world game, allowing players to explore and immerse themselves in a vibrant and authentic virtual representation of the country.

The Bolivian government filed a formal complaint about the game

The Bolivian government filed a formal complaint about Ubisoft's video game Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands, threatening legal action. Bolivia's interior minister, Carlos Romero, stated that the game unfairly portrays the country as a narco-state under the control of a drug cartel. In the game's fictional premise, a powerful Mexican drug cartel turns Bolivia into the world's largest producer of cocaine, making $2 billion a week.

Ubisoft responded by reaffirming its right to create fictional works and stressing that the game is set in a universe inspired by reality but is not intended to represent Bolivia accurately. The company chose Bolivia for its magnificent landscapes and rich culture and hoped that players would enjoy exploring the diverse and open landscapes they had created.

The Bolivian government, however, was not satisfied with this explanation. In March 2017, they filed a formal complaint to the French embassy in La Paz, stating that they had the standing to take legal action. They objected to the game's portrayal of their country as a violent narco-state, arguing that it was not a fair representation of the nation.

The controversy surrounding the game highlights the challenges of creating fictional works set in real-world locations. While Ubisoft attempted to capture the beauty and diversity of Bolivia, the government felt that the negative portrayal of their country as a narco-state warranted legal action. The dispute underscores the potential consequences of blending reality with fiction in creative endeavours.

Ubisoft sent four teams to research Bolivia

The first team travelled north, the second went south, the third headed east, and the fourth went west. Each team took thousands of photographs and hours of video, interview, and footage. They photographed buildings, doorsteps, and stores, aiming to understand how everything fit together.

The end result was a series of produced videos that set the tone for each location in the game, as well as a scrapbook of 11-by-17-inch, spiral-bound tomes that sat on desks at the studio outside Paris. These books served as a treasure and a tool for the team.

The teams also focused on the people of Bolivia, asking about their lives and experiences. These anecdotes influenced the design of non-player characters and civilians in the game world. Each region of the map has a unique population that behaves differently, with its own industries and ways of life.

The research trip to Bolivia allowed the Ubisoft team to create a faithful and believable in-game representation of the country, capturing its natural beauty and diverse topography.

The game's story is based on Bolivia's complex history with coca leaves

The video game Ghost Recon Wildlands is set in Bolivia, a country in South America. The game's story involves a Mexican drug cartel taking over Bolivia and turning it into a "narco-state", with the country becoming the largest producer of cocaine overnight. This plot point is based on Bolivia's complex history with coca leaves, which are used to make cocaine.

Coca has been cultivated in the Bolivian Andes since the Inca era and is an important part of the culture and identity of indigenous South Americans. The traditional method of chewing coca leaves, called acullico, involves keeping a saliva-soaked ball of coca leaves in the mouth along with an alkaline substance that helps extract cocaine from the leaves. Coca acts as a mild stimulant and suppresses hunger, thirst, pain, and fatigue. It is also used to combat altitude sickness and has various medicinal uses.

Bolivia is the world's third-largest producer of coca leaves, and the plant is the country's most lucrative crop. However, the production and use of coca leaves are controversial due to their association with cocaine. Coca leaves are listed on Schedule I of the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, along with cocaine and heroin. This has led to efforts by the Bolivian government and indigenous communities to decriminalize and destigmatize the plant, highlighting its cultural and medicinal significance.

The game's portrayal of Bolivia as a narco-state led to a formal complaint from the Bolivian government to the French embassy, as they felt it unfairly portrayed the country. Ubisoft, the game's developer, has maintained that the game is a work of fiction and that Bolivia was chosen for its landscapes and rich culture.

The game's characters mostly speak with a Mexican accent

The video game Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands is set in Bolivia. The game's plot involves a Mexican drug cartel, the Santa Blanca, taking over Bolivia and turning it into a "narco-state". The game's characters, including the members of the Santa Blanca cartel, mostly speak with Mexican accents and use Mexican words and phrases.

Some players have commented that this is unrealistic, comparing it to a game set in London where all the characters have Texan accents. However, others have pointed out that the Santa Blanca cartel originated in Mexico and then expanded into Bolivia, which explains the presence of Mexican accents and vocabulary.

The game's publisher, Ubisoft, has stressed that the game is a work of fiction, and that Bolivia was chosen for its "magnificent landscapes and rich culture". They also stated that they hoped players would "enjoy exploring the diverse and open landscapes" of the in-game world.

Frequently asked questions